Israel has no intention of handing Gaza over to the PA once the war is over, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night as he rebuffed US pressure to do so.
“The Palestinian Authority in its current form is not able to take responsibility for Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “After we fought and did all this, how could we hand it over to them?”
He noted that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has yet to condemn the October 7 massacre, which sparked the Gaza war, in which Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and seized over 239 hostages.
“Abu Mazen [Abbas], 43 days after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, has refused to condemn it,” Netanyahu said, adding that there are Palestinian ministers who are celebrating the event.
In addition, the PA has a policy of paying monthly stipends to terrorists and their families, Netanyahu said, adding that it also educates its children to hate Jews.
Why the PA is not appropriate leadership
He recalled that after the IDF withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it handed it over to the PA, which was then ousted by Hamas in a violent coup in 2007.
He recalled that after the IDF withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it handed it over to the PA, which was then ousted by Hamas in a violent coup in 2007.
“If there is no change here, what have we done? They [the PA] were already there, they were given the Gaza Strip and what happened? They were destroyed and chased out of there in less than a year,” Netanyahu said.
“There has to be a change here, that is my opinion and I stand by it,” he said.
Netanyahu spoke with reporters after US President Joe Biden published an opinion piece in The Washington Post in which he advocated for the return of the PA to Gaza.
Biden wrote, “As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution.”
Biden added that “there must be no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, and no reduction in territory.”
Netanyahu said there was an agreement with the US about ousting Hamas from Gaza and about the return of the hostages.
“I believe we will reach an agreement with the US also about this, that it is impossible to put in Gaza an authority that supports terror, abets terror, and pays terrorists,” he said.
Netanyahu also stressed that the IDF would retain military control of Gaza after the war.
“There is another condition that I set for the day after: the IDF will have complete freedom of action in the Gaza Strip against any threat. Only in this way will we guarantee the demilitarization of Gaza.”
He added that he has clarified that Israel won’t agree to a ceasefire until it has ousted Hamas and it would only agree to a temporary one in exchange for the return of all the hostages.
Netanyahu stressed that Israel won’t rest in its pursuit of eliminating Hamas, noting “all Hamas members are dead men whether they are located in or out of Gaza.”
